I swear, I've been like the only one bumping this thread for like the last year. At least it gets a little discussion going whenever it hits the first page, though.
I only eat two meals a day. Cheerios or oat squares for breakfast, supper is usually fattening. I guess I should eat more smaller meals. Gym twice a week because that's when it's convenient. Bike, treadmill, weights, leg press. I'll take a look, thanks. If I multiply my weight by 15, I'm at over 3000 calories. I consume less than 2000 a day, I think.
Well, if you're only eating two meals a day your body is going to go into starvation mode, which means those fattening dinners are going to store even more away. The biggest key is to eat nutrient-dense foods which forces your body to spend more energy breaking down the food, therefore storing less total calories. A nice way to quickly boost your meals' nutritional content is to use frozen veggies. They are frozen very quickly after picking, so they hold onto more of the nutrients than you would get from even "fresh" vegetables in the supermarket. I'm a big fan of salads in the middle of the day. You get yourself a filling meal packed with fiber and nutrients, so you're less hungry in the afternoon and putting better things into your body. Hitting the gym twice a week is good, but you would be better served adding at least some cardio to at least 4 other days in the week. And definitely avoid fattening meals. Especially dinner (after which you just sit around then hit the sack.)
Biggest mistake you're making man. You have to eat to lose weight. 4-6 small meals a day. I eat oatmeal for breakfast with raisins and a banana at 7:30A. Bulk oatmeal from Whole Paycheck that you cook on the stove. I drink an Optimum Nutrition Whey shake with H2o or Almond Milk at 10:30A. I sometimes have carrots and hummus too. Pre-Workout (noon) I have another shake as above. For lunch right now, I have 2 Vegan Boca Burgers with hot sauce or olive oil and a whole bag of broccoli or green beans steamed in microwave. Sometimes I have a salad with the Vegan Boca Burgers with olive oil. Around 3:30 if I'm hungry, I'll eat an apple or 2. I usually have 1 more shake at this time with H20. At 6, maybe 7 at the LATEST, I'll have dinner which consists of a HUGE salad and lots of veggies. If I need some thing with the salad, I'll do rice and beans with cholula and salsa. No cheese, no tortilla. No dessert. Lots of water--I drink at least a gallon a day, more than likely 2. I do cardio T and Th at the gym- 20 minutes on the treadmill and 20 on the stationary bike. On the weekends, I go hiking, skiing and I work in the yard. On M, W and F I stick to the Bill Starr 5x5 as per previously discussed. Biggest thing once again man-------2 meals is insane. You will not lose weight this way, you will eventually gain fat.
yeah, I've been kicking it around for a while but never managed to make the leap. I'll try eating a small breakfast and then eating vegetables a few hours later. thanks for the advice.
I have a pretty fast metabolism and actually need to GAIN weight, I've lost quite a bit in the last two years, any advice?
I just read your intro and realized that you posted this almost 3 years ago! Have you been able to keep it up? I'm on a diet myself and my goal is lose as much weight as fast as possible in a healthy way, and I'm actually quite good at it (done this before). I had tried Atkins many years ago but from that learned that if you can count carbs you can count calories, which is all that matters. My diet is simple, never eat more than 400 calories at a time, and eat every 4 hours. I get my oatmeal every morning, half a subway sandwich at noon (roast beef or ham, 300cals per 6"), the other half at 4-4:30 pm, then a frozen meal (<300cals) at around 8:30. Whenever I get a craving I just drink black coffee, and I allow myself to sneak in 100-200 cals in snacks every day. I've been keeping to about 1500 cals per day, and an hour of cardio 3 or 4 times a week. So far I'm down 25lbs in less than 2 months. I realize this won't give that beach body, but like I say I want to lose as much fat as possible as fast as humanly possible - then I'll really hit the weights. That's the part of your workout I'm interested in and looking forward to. I have no problem at all with splenda or diet sodas, bring it on it's a great help for dieting. Sugar free Jello is also excellent for this. Plus, it's alright to take an off day once every 1 or 2 weeks - that actually supercharges your metabolism. But IMO, someone needs to email Alio's diet to Rex ASAP
DUDE, two words for you: MACADAMIA NUTS Get them fresh from Hawaii if possible and get them in the cans. I've never gained so much weight in my life than when I cam back from Maui a few years ago. You'll be packing those pounds in no time (fat of course)
The six smalls meals thing for a faster metabolism is a complete myth. For most people, including myself, eating smaller meals throughout the day keeps you from overeating, and thus keeps calories down. Magic. So it is effective, but not for the reasons you think it is. It takes about 2 days of fasting for any actual metabolic slowdown to occur. Edit: Here's one of a few Studies on the subjuct. It amazes me how often the same crap gets repeated.
I suppose you have some evidence / references that it's a myth Edit: just saw your edit. I can buy that it's a myth that it increases metabolism. What I like about 4 meals is that it helps you from craving food too much like you would with 3 meals eating the same total calories
Some guy on the internet told me so. Also, I edited in a study. Pubmed is full of more long boring studies if you're interested. They all confirm the one I linked though. Edit: And here's a much less boring research review on the study I linked.
Protein. Increase protein and lift weights. The lifting will spur muscle growth and the protein will feed the muscles to allow the growth. As long as you're not going high-fat watching calories is better than crap like Atkins. I'd watch the "diet" crap though. If you read through the thread you'll see how I feel about shit like Splenda. I'm not sure when the last time (if ever) I said that 4 meals will speed your metabolism was (though I may have early on.) I'm aware of why 4 meals helps (like you said, leads to less overeating.) If you're only eating 2 meals per day, every single day, your metabolism is going to slow down though.
That wasn't really addressed to you specifically, just venting a little against readily accepted nutrition dogma. As far as metabolism goes, it is going to slow down when you're in a caloric deficit regardless of how often you eat. That's just your body's natural defense mechanism to starvation and all diets are a form of starvation, just on a smaller scale. If you're eating at maintenance or above every day it won't make a difference to your metabolism how often you eat. A lot of people have had a lot of success with intermittent fasting (eating one large meal at the end of the day) and no metabolic slowdown was apparent. Martin Berkhan of leangains.com is the guru of that school of thought. Also what don't you like about Splenda?
Did read your comments about Splenda, but like I said I have no problem with it, zero calories and hits your sweet craving and I've never seen hard evidence it was bad for you at all. Also have no problem with high fructose corn syrup to me sugar is sugar, it's all and only about total calories. Although my mother in law swears HFCS is worse than a cyanide & benzene cocktail. I don't buy the hype. Forgot to mention, I also take a daily vitamin and fidget like a mental patient. Yeah, I'm that guy shaking his leg during the morning meeting. I probably burn 150-250 extra calories a day just fidgeting at work. And at home I never sit down for more that 10 minutes before I get up and do something like clean up or rearrange things. Just weighed in last night and I'm down 26 pounds in 49 days
Splenda does have a bunch of trace chemicals in it that are harmful, but the trace amounts are only harmful themselves if you are taking in retarded amounts of Splenda. HFCS is another thing that makes no sense to me. Most anti-HCFS people will tout the advantages of real sugar (sucrose) and bash HFCS. Most of the criticisms seem to be based on studies linking high amounts fructose to elevated triglycerides and fatty deposits in the liver. Let me state though that the tests used insane levels of fructose to come to these conclusions - like 600g/day. Nobody could possibly ever reach those amounts with a normal diet. And, getting back to sugar, HFCS is 55% fructose and 45% glucose and Sucrose is 50% fructose and 50% glucose. You really think the extra 5% fructose make any difference in things? The bottom line is that too much sugar is bad for you and it doesn't make a difference whether it's in the form of HCFS or sucrose or anything else for that matter. Also, congrats on losing weight.
